


Crossing the line

by FlyingDutchy



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Dark, F/F, Murder, Project Cadmus, Rescue, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 14:24:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13742835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingDutchy/pseuds/FlyingDutchy
Summary: Alex crosses a line to save Kara.





	Crossing the line

**Author's Note:**

> This one is pretty dark. You are warned.
> 
>  
> 
> Edit: Fixed some typos after going over it once more.

 

 

She arched her back, the tension in her back evaporated with loud cracks. Luckily the rest of her employees had already gone home to enjoy their weekend. Unlucky for her, work is never done. The hour on the clock—she loved old school analogue clocks over their more practical digital variants—seemed to have skipped the one, two and three and was almost resting on the fourth number. Where did the night go?

It _had_ been a crazy week after all. Sam became sick, Supergirl disappeared and crime surged in the city, Kara stood her up and her mother had sent her a message. Lillian had escaped prison, again, but somehow she sounded much more unhinged than last time. Lena had no idea if that was possible at all.

Running CatCo and now L-Corp because of Sam’s illness was tiring, but so much needed to be done. She wasn’t angry at Sam, that woman worked very hard to get here and she was good at her job, but it did give her an immense headache due to the lack of sleep. When the clock struck exactly four in the night and a loud gong echoed in the silence of the empty office, she decided it was time to call it a night. She’d sleep through the Sunday and be back on Monday morning with a fresh look on the problems.

“Thomas, I’m calling it for tonight. Could you get arrange a vehicle to drive me home?” Home was her apartment in which she lived for exactly eight hours per day—if she was lucky. One of her six security officers, Thomas Murphy, left the perimeter. Lena hated that she needed them, but with her mother on the loose she had asked for protection.

She cleaned up, because on the off-chance she would be late for work, she wanted to have an immaculate office to return to. Lena collected her suitcase when she heard hurried steps and a shout from the hallway. A soft thud and more warning messages sounded. Somewhere behind her a radio cackled, she looked towards it and found a slumped over body—one of her guards.

The door to her office opened and she saw Vera shout inside. “Lena, get behind me.”

The broad shouldered women drew her weapon and aimed down the hallway. Before Lena could move to cover, Vera’s head snapped back and the back of it exploded in gore. The guard, one Lena had known personally for over five years, collapsed and twitched as the heart still pumped and muscles still had their reflexes working. Bile rose up in her mouth as she scrambled away from the door and the dark hallway. Maybe she should have scrambled towards the gun of her dead friend, but panic had taken over the mind.

Footsteps closed in, their approach was stopped by a kick and a grunt— _Thomas!—_ but continued towards her after that. She held her breath as a raised gun popped out of the darkness behind the open door, followed by two slim arms and finally a feminine face framed by short auburn hair. In her fear, she didn’t recognize who it was at first. Then relief washed over her.

“Alex, I think my mother is trying to kill me.” It took a second for Lena to register that Alex kicked the gun away from Vera’s outstretched hands as she carefully stepped over the body. Then the agent trained the gun on her. “Alex? What are you?”

“I’m sorry, Lena.” She tried to resist as the agent, clad in black combat gear, grabbed her arm. Resistance proved futile because Alex was both faster, stronger and much better trained. “Don’t try anything, I’d hate for you to get hurt more than necessary. Kara would never forgive me.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, I had nothing to do with my mother’s escape.” She was being dragged through the empty hallway. She saw three downed bodyguards, though all three still breathing unlike Vera.

Alex saw her look and she glanced back at the one who’s brain was splattered over Lena’s desk, and her clothes. “Ironically, I had to kill the last one because she was too good at her job.”

Lena heard the disgust drop from Alex’s voice. Lena didn’t know what was going on, why this agent who had saved her life on multiple occasions, who worked with Supergirl on a daily basis, would suddenly kidnap her and shoot up innocent people. “Alex, look, I don’t know what’s going on but you know I’m not the bad guy.”

Kara’s sister shook her head. “I know you’re not.”

She was being forced in the back of a black government van that had seen better days. The vehicle was littered with bullet impacts, the windshield was cracked and one of its mirrors was missing. Once inside, the interior light showed her Alex was not much better off. What she once had recognized as combat gear were torn clothes and tight fitting jeans, body armor that had done its job recently and the camouflage were smears of blood—Alex’s own or someone else’s.

A phone was thrown to the back, and the car sped out of the garage. “Call your mother.”

Her first response was almost to shout she didn’t know how. Then she remembered the note her mother left. Hidden between the lines was a code they used, which told her what information could be used to contact her—a method which could only be used once. With trembling fingers, she tried to dial the number, but Alex’s maniacal driving made it impossible for her to succeed.

“—terrorists behind the attack on the Department of Environmental Operation have been killed, but the number of casualties is still to be—” Alex switched away from the police scanner.

They stopped under a bridge next to the cities river. Without care for Lena, Alex threw her on the ground and pointed at the phone. “Call.”

Finally she succeeded. Her mother picked up at the first ring. “Lena.”

She looked at Alex, who’s eyes seemed to ask if she had connected. “Mother, I—”

“Hello, Lillian.” Alex interrupted with a voice as cold as ice. She put Lillian on speaker after connecting the phone to a new display. Lena saw her mother’s victorious expression turn fearful in one moment. Alex pointed the phone’s camera at them. “As you see, I have something you find quite valuable. And for your daughter’s sake, I hope you find Lena more valuable than Supergirl.”

It clicked in her head. Her mother had captured the Kryptonian. Why would Alex kidnap her though? She must know that Lena would never side with her mother against Supergirl.

“I know you have something of mine, so I propose a trade.” Alex continued with a voice detached of emotion, but Lena saw that Alex’s hands were shaking. “For Lena’s sake, I hope Supergirl is still alive and breathing.”

“You wouldn’t!” Her mother called out. A flash of movement and her head snapped back first. Moments later she felt the sting and blood pool in her mouth. Alex had pistol whipped her. She spit out the blood and a broken teeth. “It’s all bluff, a show, you’re too good to come through on your threats.”

Alex tsk’ed. “You captured the good one.” Lena felt the cold metal of the gun press against the top of her left knee. “Show me Supergirl.”

Tearing her vision away from the gun pressed to her leg, she watched as her mother panned the screen. There, in the center of the room behind her mother, hung a figure pinned to the a cross. Three green, glowing, spikes were used to pin the figure to the large wooden frame, one through each and a the third through both feet. Blood dripped from the wounds caused by the Kryptonite nails, and similar red tracks ran down the hero’s cheeks as if she had cried tears of blood. Lena’s attention was forced away from the torturous display, and gasped. Supergirl was not wearing her normal outfit. She was wearing the exact same clothes that Kara had been wearing the last time she had seen her. “No… That’s not…”

 _But it was_.

The metal of the gun vibrated against her skin, Alex’s hands were gripped tight around the handle. “Kara…” Alex whispered, fear dripping from her voice for just a second, but then it steeled and hardened. “You will take her down, and trade her for your daughter without harming another hair on Supergirl’s head or the press will find Lena strung up like you did to Kara.”

“I don’t think I will—” A thunderous noise deafened her, and she stared at the smoking gun pointed at her leg. Her mangled knee stared back at her, blood was pouring out. In shock, she brought her hands to the wound to see how badly she was bleeding. The coppery smell hit her before the pain did.

She screamed and passed out.

 

 

The pain in her side was barely bearable as she dragged Lena’s unconscious body from the car. Around her was very little light. The damaged van was parked at an awkward angle across the two metal beams of an old railway track that was no longer used. The place she’d picked for the exchange was away from innocent bystanders. But most of all, it only had 2 exits. One on her side and one on CADMUS’ side. No high ground, no hiding.

While the real tunnel was clad in darkness, she saw everything in a dark green hue thanks to her night vision goggles. The sensitive equipment allowed her to see in the dark, but she knew that her enemies would employ similar technology. Her body armor had been replaced with an undamaged one but most of her wounds still needed to be addressed. That was low priority though.

With disdain she glanced at the damage she had done to Kara’s friend. Life was unfair to Lena Luthor, and it was not fair for Alex to punish the woman who tried so hard not to be defined by her family’s actions. If only she knew another way to save Kara.

Normally, she’d put together a team with J’onn, Winn, James as the Guardian and ask or plead for Lena’s help. Unfortunately, J’onn was on Mars and Winn was hurt in the attack on the DEO. Traitorous agents ambushed Kara the moment she had set foot in the building after a false alarm. Alex saw Vasquez get shot in the head, before managing to save herself from a similar fate. She was lucky she had been wearing combat armor, because she wouldn’t have survived otherwise. Despite her best efforts, she only managed to chase the traitors away and save some of their agents. The problem was that they didn’t know if there were more traitors within their ranks.

There might have been a time when Alex would not have gone this far to protect her sister. But that time was long gone. She’d killed before, mostly people that deserved it, and she’d also used what the government called ‘enhanced interrogation’ techniques to get information from bad aliens and humans. Never before had she pointed her weapon at someone innocent. A boundary had been crossed today and she knew Kara would never forgive her. For Alex, that was but a small price to pay.

She put Lena in the wheelchair she’d confiscated from a local hospital and carefully checked the tourniquet she’d made to stop the leg from bleeding. The damage that she’d done to the poor woman was extensive but not irreversible. In a few years and extensive surgeries Lena would regain all her function. _I’m sorry._

They moved next to the tracks, the wheelchair hobbled along the uneven ground. Her breathing was labored from the exertion she had put herself through and her steps were unsteady. She’d take a long rest when this was all over. The slight curvature of the tunnel made it impossible to see the end of it. So slowly a silhouette came into view. Then another. Until she could make out five individuals standing there. Her flashlight shone across their bodies, there were four armed goons—normal humans—and Lillian Luthor was at the center. As her flashlight crossed Lillian, she saw a someone lying at the monster’s feet.

 _Kara._ Her heart beat faster. She couldn’t see whether or not Kara was breathing. _If Kara was dead…_ Well, then all seven in the tunnel were unlikely to survive the next hour.

As they closed in, she heard a shuffle in the wheelchair she was pushing forward. Lena was waking up. The CEO panicked and started thrashing while she was bound in the chair. Alex had no time for these antics and grabbed her roughly.

“Calm down and do as I say.  Kara will be saved and you will be able to go to the hospital.” A desperate whimper sounded from the throat of the youngest Luthor. Alex’s stomach twisted, that was _her_ doing. “For the record. I am sorry. Kara’s life is just worth more than yours.”

And that was the gist of it. Lena didn’t deserve what was happening to her. Lena had nothing to do with it. However, it didn’t matter to Alex. The crying woman who she had shot and was now using as leverage had been turned into a tool to save Kara.

She saw Lillian seethe with rage as they came closer. Four rifles were trained on her chest. “I wouldn’t shoot me, if I were you.”

Raising her left hand, she showed a dead man’s switch to the other side. “Your dearest daughter is wearing a vest full of explosives. I drop this, or my heart stops beating, and there’s going to be many tiny pieces of Lena Luthor all over these tracks. With some luck the shrapnel from the bombs and her fragmented bones will take some of you out as well.”

“You’re bluffing.” Lillian warned. In response Alex plucked one of the grenades from the vest, pulled the pin, and threw it down the path she came from. Sufficiently warned, Lillian was still not completely convinced. “You’d kill your dearest sister as well.”

Alex shrugged. After her last capture and subsequent torture, Kara had made her promise that Alex would take her out if all else failed and save herself. Alex had lied, of course, but she would either die trying to save her sister or they’d both die. “You’re not willing to sacrifice your daughter, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. So let’s get on with it. Show me Kara’s alive.”

The warning within her voice told the leader of CADMUS that her time was running out. Lena’s mother bent over and grabbed something sticking out of Kara’s back. With the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart, the rod came loose and glowed green in the dark cave. Kara’s muffled screams were finally heard as the Kryptonian recovered slightly from her injuries. As the screams stopped, Kara clambered on her feet and looked around dazed. She was blindfolded and muzzled. Alex noticed the wounded stance, the scared way her sister looked around unseeing. She had seen the bloody tear tracks on Kara’s face and wondered what else Lillian had done to her.

“Kara, I’m here.” She said and the effect was immediate. Though obviously still hurting and with all her power being used to not die to her many wounds, Kara’s resolve strengthened immediately. “Lillian, I will make the trade.”

“How do I know you will not blow up my daughter the moment you have Kara.” She saw the alarm at which her sister snapped her neck back at the mention of Lena’s presence. _She’ll understand that I had no choice._

“I’d suggest making sure your men can shoot me when you lose your leverage.” She gave Lena two crutches and pushed her in Lillian’s direction. She deserved the hateful glare she received from the woman. Lillian ordered her men to spread out. Alex turned off her night vision as Kara approached. She embraced her bloodied sister fiercely. Their hands found each other and Alex felt the rough scars on Kara’s palms where the Kryptonite nails had pinned her to the cross. Then, in one smooth move, she pushed Kara behind her and raised her arm in front of her while simultaneously releasing the dead man’s switch.

Gunfire sounded as Guardian’s shield formed from Alex’s hand. Lena’s vest popped. Like jumping landmines, grenades popped from the girls vest in all directions. However, these were not explosive grenades.

Flashes as bright as the sun cast the tunnel in the brightest white light. Despite having her eyes closed, she was still blinded by the fierce light. The sound that followed was deafening straight through the hearing protection she was using. If she hadn’t turned the night vision goggles off, she’d be unable to see for the next minutes. That was what she had counted on.

Alex drew her own alien pistol and shot the four guards with great accuracy. They screamed as they died. Lena and Lillian had been thrown back by the concussive strength of the blast, but neither were seriously hurt by it. Alex flicked on her night vision again and, with one last reassuring squeeze on Kara’s thigh, stepped towards the dazed mother and daughter.

Lillian was on her hands and knees, unseeing and searching with her hands for anything to protect herself. She found a gun and fumbled with it as Alex took her time prowling towards the fallen leader. Unseeing, Lillian pointed the gun in random directions. Alex aimed and shot the arm that was holding the gun. The energy blast burned through the skin and Lillian screamed in pain.

“Mother!” “Alex!” Lena and Kara screamed simultaneously.

“Alex, this is not you.” Alex ignored the Kara’s exclamation. She’d recently found out that this was her.

Lillian held her burnt arm while whimpering in pain. “I surrender, you-you got me.”

Alex shook her head before realizing Lillian wouldn’t be able to see it. She picked up the gun that Lillian had grabbed and checked the chamber for rounds. She was unsurprised to see that Kryptonite laden bullets were loaded. “Perfect.”

“Lillian Luthor.” She heard Kara call out once more to stop this madness. Alex would stop this madness, stop the madness of taking prisoners only for them to escape and threaten Kara once more. She’d killed before in self-defense or direct defense of her sister or friends. This would be her first execution. “It is ironic, that the weapon that could kill Supergirl would be your own demise.”

“I’m unarmed! You can’t do this! You’re the government! This is unconstitutional!” Lillian whimpered as Alex level the gun at the woman. As a consolation, Lillian wouldn’t see it coming. Lena was the first to beg and Alex shrugged it off. Kara then begged Alex not to do this.

“I _am_ sorry.” A single gunshot echoed through the tunnel and Lillian collapsed from her knees backwards until her body was folded over. A green trail hovered in the dark before fading away. Lena scrambled to find her mother, sobbing over the loss of a parent. Alex turned, cold creeping up her insides. She ignored the pain in her body and picked up a thrashing, angry Kara. Kara, drained as she was, posed no challenge for Alex. Kara screamed at her to let her go, that she needed to comfort Lena, but Alex would bring Kara to the DEO if it was cleared, or otherwise back to her apartment where she had a spare set of sun-lamps. For the moment, it didn’t matter what Kara wanted.

 _“I hate you!”_ Kara screamed in Kryptonian. “ _You’re a monster.”_

The cold had crept up to her heart and she let Kara’s screams of anguish, anger, disappointment, and resentment glide from her.

Her sister was alive and the threat was eliminated. That was all that mattered.

 

 

It took a week of laying under the sun lamps to regain her vision. The DEO scientists documented the regenerative capabilities of the Kryptonian species, and Kara had felt like a lab rat during that time. Lillian had gouged her eyes out as punishment for using her heat vision, she had pinned her hands to the cross to punish her from using her super strength and her feet to keep her from flying. It was all symbolic to the leader of CADMUS and it was supposed to be a ritual killing to show the power of humanity over the aliens. It even had the local religious undertones of Christianity.

She’d been visited during her recovery by Winn, James, Lucy and J’onn. Alex stayed away as Kara requested at first, but later because she had vanished. She had regretted requesting Alex to stay away from her for what she had done, and Kara did not forgive her sister for the extreme measures she had gone through, but she needed Alex with her despite all that.

That’s when she had heard that after Alex had dropped Kara off at the DEO, after she had learned that J’onn had returned from Mars and it was safe, her sister had disappeared.

The moment she could finally see once more, she scrambled from the bed. Kara ignored the protests from the doctors and rushed out into the control room of the DEO. It was only there that she noticed the damage the attack had caused. Consoles were destroyed, emergency displays and systems were put up, and the room was a general mess. It had taken considerable effort from the government to keep the public from knowing what had truly happened, the DEO was supposed to be a secret agency after all.

What Kara noticed the most was the understaffing—signified by a plaque of names. Only the colleagues that were still alive would know the truth behind the deaths of the thirty-six that had died. Kara didn’t even know all of them. Vasquez’s dead had hit her the hardest. However, she knew that it must have hit her sister even harder. Alex had apparently joined the DEO at the same time as Vasquez, they had trained and fought together for years before Kara became a hero.

She wiped the tears from her eyes as the imprinted every single name into her memory.

Kara turned to Winn’s desk and for a moment the shock of seeing it empty made her forget that Winn’s name was not on that list. Winn was still in the hospital recovering from being shot in the shoulder and leg. Not finding her helpful friend, she turned to the man overseeing the restoration of his headquarters.

“J’onn.” She called out. The Martian in his human disguise as Hank Henshaw turned towards her. He must have noticed her distress. His hardened gaze softened as he opened his arms to embrace her, which she submitted to willingly.

“Supergirl, I’m glad you’re recovering.” She couldn’t fly yet, couldn’t fight yet, but she could search. Search for her sister to tell her she doesn’t hate her. The last exchange of words was that she couldn’t ever forgive Alex for what she had done and never wanted to see her again. Words that Alex had taken to heart by disappearing from the face of the Earth.

“Any word?”

Hank shook his head. “The latest intel we have was a sighting yesterday in Burma. When our men got there she was long gone. Different ID, different name. Alex is one of our best operatives and if she doesn’t want to be found…”

Kara knew she’d be the only one able to find her with her superpowers, but without them it would be nigh on impossible.

 

 

It took another month for the last fragments of Kryptonite to leave her system and for Kara to fully heal and recover all her powers. It took another two months after that to locate her sister in the Polish city of Krakow. And it was not because she was so good at finding her sister. It was because her sister had succumbed to her darkest desires.

Alex was a bruised and bloody mess, lying face down in a pool of her own vomit in an alley. She reeked of alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, blood and dirt. Kara had seen the other _guys_. Alex had found it prudent to start a bar fight with some local thugs that were about to date-rape some girl. Alex had beat them up and, according to witnesses and the police, vanished when the authorities arrived.

Using her gentlest of touches, she picked her older sister up from the ground and brought her to a hospital. She didn’t speak Polish, but a brief flash of her powers was enough to prove who she was. No questions were further leveled at her.

Unlike Alex, she waited by her sisters side for the two days it took her to recover from her injuries. She woke up to the sound of someone trying to get out of the bed unnoticed. Her eyes snapped open and stared into those brown eyes that she had missed for the past three months. “Alex!”

In a futile attempt, her sister tried to push past her. Kara put her sister back to bed. “Lay down, don’t move.”

“You don’t own me.” Alex spit out. “You can’t control me.”

“Like you made a decision for me back in that tunnel? Like you controlled me.” Kara was unable to take back the words she spit out. She saw the flash of pain on Alex’s face. “I’m so—”

“Don’t lie.” That was a rule between them. Never say sorry when you’re not truly sorry. She was sorry for saying it, but not sorry for feeling those feelings. Kara had been helpless and Lena needed her after Alex had brutally executed her mother in front of her eyes. “You haven’t forgiven me and you never will.”

Alex had resigned to that fate. Kara wanted her to fight it. She wanted Alex to prove to her that the person who was in that cave was just a small part of her, a monster that would never come out again. “I have nothing to forgive you for, because that person was not you. It doesn’t define who you are.”

“But it does.” Alex scoffed. “I knew it then as I know it now. I live to protect you Kara, even if it kills me, or anyone around me.”

Kara knew it was not Alex speaking. Alex was traumatized, not thinking clearly and the darkness that she knew her sister kept bottled up had taken control. So the Kryptonian was willing to play dirty.

“And where were you the past two months then?” She pulled up her shirt to show a burn on her chest, just above her heart. “I fought Reign again. She almost killed me. _Again._ And where were you? Drinking instead of, as you _fucking_ claim, ‘protecting me’.”

Kara didn’t mean those words, even if each of them was true. She didn’t need protection form her sister, she needed her sister, period. “So either stop pretending you live to protect me, or come back to National City and do what you say you do.”

Alex returned with her to National City.

 

 

“Why the _fuck_ did you do something that stupid?” Alex was seething as Kara recovered under the sun lamps. Her own arm was broken, her ribs were cracked, her knee was shattered, but Alex was alive instead of being impaled by a beam of superheated plasma. Kara had jumped in its path and saved Alex from certain dead. Kara’s skin was burnt to a crisp all over her body, Alex couldn’t comprehend the agony her sister was in at the moment, but she still smiled as if everything was alright.

She’d been back for six months after Kara had picked her up from the streets in Krakow. They hardly spoke. They had been nearly inseparable for twelve years, and now they were hardly ever in the same place. Unless Kara was somehow in danger, then Alex was by her side doing what she could to minimize any harm that befell on her younger sister.

Alex had tried to speak to Kara during this period, but words came short every time. Instead, Kara found herself spending time with Lena instead of her. Alex couldn’t face Lena after what she had done. She was glad that Lena had not held Kara accountable for Alex’s actions. That would have been unfair to her sister.

When Alex saw Kara kiss Lena, she knew why she was going this far to protect the most special person in the world. After that, she distanced herself further from her sister. Lena never pursued Kara and despite the fact that Kara was hurt by the rejection, Alex couldn’t help but be glad about it. It was selfish, she knew that and she hated herself for it, but she couldn’t help but feel what she felt.

Kara tried to talk with Alex after Lena had ended things between them before they could begin. She’d been tearful and sad, looking for support. Alex had wanted to give it to her, but she pulled away.

Then this morning a regular ‘capture the alien’ mission turned sideways and Alex was almost caught in a destructive beam of plasma. Despite her horrible treatment of her sister these past six months, Kara still submitted herself to immense amounts of pain so Alex could take out the alien.

“Why?” Kara whispered painfully as she coughed up blood. “I live to protect you as well.”

The coldness surrounding her heart receded as Kara cupped her cheek with her right hand. The rough, scarred skin which would soon be healed, scratched against her cheek. She blinked and felt wet tear tracks find their way down her cheeks until she tasted their saltiness. Kara brushed them away with her thumb.

“I’m so sorry.” She sobbed as Kara shushed her. “I’m so, so sorry.”

“Don’t lie.” She wasn’t lying. She was sorry for all the pain she’d caused Kara. For not listening to her. For making the decisions for her with regards to her protection, even if it went against all that Kara stood for. She only wasn’t sorry for what she had had to do to save Kara. She wasn’t sorry for loving Kara.

“I’m sorry for so many things.” She leaned her forehead to Kara’s and stared into those blue eyes. For the first time in the past nine months, those eyes looked at her with the same love they used to. “But I’m not sorry, never sorry, for saving you. I’m never sorry for how much I love you.”

It was Kara who tightened her grip around her and pulled them into a soft kiss.

 

 

Alex’s finger hovered over the button on the intercom. She glanced over her shoulder to the person on the sidewalk behind her. A huge apartment complex rose above them, luxurious beyond belief. Kara smiled her most gentlest of smiles. It did little to make her feel better. Still, knowing that she had her full support, she pushed the button. Kara vanished as Alex heard the response.

“Yes?”

“Eh- miss Luthor, I-eh, it’s Alex.” The sharp intake of breath couldn’t be misheard. Two years had passed since the incident. Still, the scars were still born by many. Alex still dreamt about feeling of the gun in her hands as she _murdered_ someone in cold blood. Kara woke up three out of four nights, screaming either for her, or for the pain of the torture to stop. According to Kara, Lena still walked with a limp and required a cane to walk. “Can I come in to speak to you?”

The silence stretched. She heard heavy breathing, followed by some mantras used to help calm people down. _I have done this_.

A few minutes later, the door buzzed. Alex followed the security guard after he patted her down in search for weapons. Lena had surrounded herself with permanent security and was paranoid around any form of weapon. Kara had told her the woman was visiting therapists and she was slowly improving.

Lena, being the graceful host, poured her a cup of coffee. She hobbled from the kitchen to the modern living room with a tray that balanced precariously. Alex tried to stand up but she was shot down by an unforgiving glare that told her she caused this and helping her grab some coffee was not going to cut it. Alex swallowed heavily.

“Lena, miss Luthor, I-eh-I want to, I don’t. I mean—”

“You want to say you’re sorry, beg for forgiveness, and somehow wash away your guilt?” Lena spat out as she slammed her cup of coffee on the dark wooden salon table.

“No, I’m not here for your forgiveness.”

“Good. Because you are not getting it.”

“I’m, I don’t know why I’m here truly. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to scream at me, yell at me, confront me of what I’ve done, and tell you that I never wanted to hurt you.” Lena sucked in another breath and Alex prepared for whatever torment the woman could unleash on her.

“But you would do it all again, if it meant saving Kara.” It wasn’t a question. Alex nodded in response. “Even killing my mother?”

Alex swallowed. “Yes.”

With shaky hands, Lena reached under the table and pulled out a small pistol. She leveled the weapon at Alex. Her heart started to race. Lena had every right to shoot her. Alex would shoot her, if she was Lena. The gun was shaking so badly in Lena’s hands that Alex was afraid that it would go off randomly. Maybe Lena wanted it to, so she too could wash away the guilt and pretend it was an accident.

“Kara would kill me if I shot you.” Alex nodded. “That’s the reason I stopped things with Kara. I knew you were in love with her. To hurt you, I could have pursued Kara.” And she would have won Kara’s affection because Alex kept pushing her away. “But I knew that Kara loved you more than she could love anyone else. And you have hurt me enough for the rest of my life, and knowing that Kara desired you more than me would be another way you would be hurting me. _And I wouldn’t let you hurt me anymore!_ ”

Alex raised her hands. Lena was pointing the gun at random directions as she waved it around angrily. Her shaky finger was still on the trigger. “Why don’t you put the gun down?”

“Put it down? Like you did?” Lena sneered. She slammed the gun down on the table.

It went off.

Alex saw Lena blanch as much as she did. The bullet snapped past her shoulder into the wall behind her. Not a second later, Kara burst through the windows looking panicked and angry. A relieved smile rose to her face as she saw the damaged wall to the right of Alex. “I wasn’t eavesdropping—I just heard a bang and thought…”

“It’s alright, Kara.” Lena said after collecting herself. “Alex was just about to show herself out. I don’t want to see Alex ever again in my life, so when you have your wedding, don’t bother inviting me, okay?”

Kara nodded with a sad but understanding smile on her face. Lena’s tone did imply that Kara would still be her friend, but Alex would never be welcome. “We understand, and-uh-I am sorry about your window.”

She was lifted into Kara’s arms. She looked once more in Lena’s eyes and tried to convey that she was truly sorry. They seemed to reach an understanding in that moment. As they flew away from Lena’s apartment, Alex nuzzled into the blonde’s neck. “You heard everything, didn’t you?”

Silence confirmed her suspicions.

When they got to their own apartment and Alex stood with both feet on the floor again, Kara kissed her soundly and deeply. “I would have killed Lena if she shot you.”

Alex nodded.

Ultimately, they were not so different when it came to one another. There were no lines they wouldn’t cross.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So... first a disclaimer: I like Lena. I don't ship SuperCorp, but I don't hate it. That said... sorry towards Lena lovers for this one. 
> 
> I was writing my other story and this one just popped into my head and I simply could not continue before I had written this one. There's more stories floating in my head which potentially might stop me from wiring my space scyfy story. It's so much easier to write one-shots because you know it ends after that one story. 
> 
> Tell me what you liked/didn't like about this.


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